at a press conference in thailand, president obama asserted israel's right to defend itself. >> let's understand what the event here was that's causing the current crisis. that was an ever escalating number of missiles that were landing not just in israeli territory, but in areas that are populated. and, there's no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on thinker citizens. we are supportive of israel's right to defend itself from missiles landing on people's homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians. we will continue to support israel's right to defend itself. now, what is also true is that we are actively working with all the parties in the region to see if we can end those missiles being fired without further escalation. >> the troops along the israel gaza border. israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu said they are going to expand the operation. the back and forth has been escalating since wednesday when they killed a chief. since then, israel carried out air strikes on targets in gaza. the death toll is at 56. hamas retaliated killing three ci